Have you ever had a verse of Scripture bless you with new insight or application?

I have loved this verse for many years. It touches a place in my heart and speaks volumes to me. At first glance, it may seem a strange verse to love, but let me enlarge you.

“And there was an enlarging, and a winding about still upward to the side chambers: for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house: therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowest chamber to the highest by the midst.” (Ezek. 41:7 KJV)

“And there was an enlarging…”

I love that! Let’s draw from a few other versions of that portion and see if you catch it…

*“And the side rooms became broader as they encompassed the temple higher and higher, for the encircling of the house went higher and higher round about the temple; therefore the breadth of the house continued upward.” (AMPC)

*“The side rooms surrounding the temple widened at each successive story, for the structure surrounding the temple went up by stages.” (HCSB)

*“The side rooms at the top were larger than the ones at the bottom, all around the Lord’s house.” (NLV)

Are you getting it? No?

How have you come to know the Lord as you do? Has your heart been expanded through good or peaceful times? Maybe some. However…

*What enlarges you, stretches you, increases you?
*What compels you to seek the Lord, to draw you near to Him?
*What are those rooms in your heart that need widening, that lead you to rise higher, to that place where you grab hold of God and don’t let go?

Do you have a Peniel like Jacob, where he took hold of God and would not let go until God blessed him?

Are you confined by barred difficulties like Paul was? The Lord overwhelmingly expanded Paul through all his imprisonments and sufferings that the church might be enlarged by his work of spreading the gospel.

And David? He said to God, “You have freed me when I was hemmed in and enlarged me when I was in distress.” (Ps. 4:1b AMPC) Enlarged in distress.

Are you getting it? Maybe?

The Lord not only broadens us through His Word and in quiet times of communion with Him but also through trials and sufferings. And “as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.” (2 Cor. 3:18b TLB) “We are changed into his glorious image.” (NLT) “From one radiance of glory to another.” (Voice) From a lower chamber to a higher one.

It is not so much that trials expand us but that trials compel us into the very presence of God. That place where we are enlarged. Where the Lord shares His joy, dispenses His comfort, gives us His peace, supplies our needs, soothes our sorrows. All gained by sharing in the Lord’s character that we might draw from Him the graces for survival in this life.

In his commentary, Matthew Henry said of the Ezekiel passage, “The higher we build up ourselves in our most holy faith the more should our hearts, those living temples, be enlarged.” And as our hearts are enlarged, our whole household, those side rooms, will expand, and so, too, will the church be increased.

Therefore, I pray you may be enlarged and “build yourselves up in your most holy faith” and “grow in spiritual strength and become better acquainted with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Jude 20a NIV, 2 Peter 3:18 TLB)

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28 NLT)

“Come to Me…” Do we heed those words? Do we go to the Lord to drop all our burdens at His feet? Or do we usually carry those heavy loads all by ourselves or lay them on a friend? Or do we give them to the Lord and, then, snatch them back again?

Peter said, “Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.” (1 Peter 5:7 TLB)

“…all of you who are weary…” Don’t we weary ourselves with worries, even though Jesus gave the command to “not worry about your life”? (Matt. 6:25a NIV)

You know how the dictionary defines worry, don’t you? To torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts, fret, or be in a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.

Hmmm…actual or potential problems. How often do we torment ourselves by fretting over those problems, whether real or the imagined what-ifs? Instead of focusing on the Lord, we permit those worries to divert our focus, causing ourselves more anxiety.

“…and carry heavy burdens…” We load ourselves down, and then, what happens? David said, “Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed.” (Ps. 143:4 NKJV) Overwhelmed is defined as to envelop oneself, be feeble or faint, or grow weak. Distressed is defined as to be desolate, grow numb, appalled, devastated, ravaged.

David said he was overwhelmed and distressed because “the enemy has persecuted my soul.” (Ps. 143:3a NKJV) Sometimes, we walk around hunched over like a question mark, bent from the burdens we let the enemy pile on us.

When we keep our minds focused on the Lord, “[He] will keep in perfect peace all who trust in [Him], all whose thoughts are fixed on [Him]!” (Isa. 26:3 NLT)

Do we fix our thoughts on Him or on our worries and cares? Do we release our grasp on them to receive what He offers us?

No godly soul ever grew in intimacy with the Lord or gained spiritual sight of His presence by carrying a load of burdens or worries. When difficulties blur our vision of our Beloved, we relinquish the very thing we seek: hearing the whispers of His heart, feeling the comfort of His arms, and knowing the peace of His nearness.

Is there a mist of care obstructing your view of your Beloved? Walk through that mist of care and you will see the image of your Beloved with His outstretched arms. Drop your burdens there at His feet. And He will say to you…

Feeling forsaken and utterly alone, Maid, in tears over her plight, sits by a spring of water, somewhere on the way to Shur (meaning a wall), where she encounters an Angel of the Lord.

Angel: “Where did you come from? And where are you going?”

Maid: “I am running away from my Mistress.”

Angel: “Return to her and humble yourself to her. Then, I will greatly multiply your descendants. The Lord has heard your cry of distress.”

Act 3:

Maid names the Angel: The Living One Who Sees Me.

She also names the well: The Well of the Living One Who Sees Me.

Finale:

Maid goes back where she belongs…serving her Mistress, the one ruling over her. And she is blessed with a multitude of descendants.

Personal application:

Act 1: The problem

Question 1: Have you ever had a situation that just wasn’t working out right?

Question 2: Have you ever had a problem, or been a part of someone else’s problem, and you, or the other person, did something without thinking it through?

Question 3: Has someone treated you so badly that, in your hurt, you wanted to escape?

Act 2: The consequence

1): Maybe, like Sarai, you got tired of waiting on God. You tried to help Him out by acting on your own, doing something that wasn’t His plan, and you suffered overwhelming consequences.

2): Maybe, like Paul, when those around you struck out on their own, not consulting God, you got caught in their aftermath, and you felt as if you were shipwrecked.

3): Maybe, like Hagar, you ran from your situation to the wilderness, where you sat down all alone, forsaken, and cried a bazillion teardrops. Maybe you ran up against a Shur-wall.

Act 3: The application

At one time or another, we have all experienced at least one of the above three scenarios.

When circumstances become overwhelming and our heart is aching, we all want to run to the wilderness to escape our problems, whether of our own or someone else’s doing, and cry.

We might feel alone and forsaken, but are we? No. God is with us. It’s not like the song, I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City! He’s notsomewhere else.

In the Old Testament, God’s name and His presence were synonymous: Jehovah-shammah, meaning the Lord is present or there. In the New Testament, it is the same; Jesus’ name is Immanuel, God with us.

God is present; He is with us. He sees our tears; He sees our heartaches; He sees our struggles.

He says, “I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Josh. 1:5 NKJV)

We cannot run to a place so desolate, so forsaken, that the Lord will not find us. For wherever we go, there He is! No running away from any circumstance can ever separate us from God’s presence.

*Denouement (conclusion)

Running to your prayer closet to seek the Lord is preferable to running away from your trials. In God’s presence, you will receive His guidance, comfort, provision, love, forgiveness, joy, and His peace. Whatever your heart needs.

When you sit by the well of the One Who sees you, you are filled with courage and strength to return to where you belong…to serving and submitting to the One ruling over you.

No matter where you go, what you do, what your need, or what happens to you, God is there and you will encounter Him. And you will be blessed in your returning to Him.

In your tears and your heartaches, in your wilderness times of distress, remember…